Examine the financial characteristics of health care delivery along with managing costs, revenues, and human resources.

Final Project Outline/Annotated Bibliography

Before you begin, review the possible topics and requirements for your Final Project in Week Five.  There are four topics that you may choose from and they are listed at the beginning of the Final Project prompt. Submit the following to your instructor for review:

1. 1. Identify the topic of your Final Project
      • Describe the issue, why it was selected, the perspective of approach, and the scope of the paper.

1. 1. Provide an outline of your project
      • The outline should include a heading for each section of the Research Paper/PowerPoint Presentation (including one for the thesis and the conclusion) as well as heading descriptions. Subheadings should also be used with a description of each subheading. These should demonstrate that you have done significant research, evaluation, and critical thinking on the issues involved and should illustrate the strategies you would incorporate and implement for the scenario you are creating.

1. Create an annotated bibliography
   • The annotated bibliography should contain at least five scholarly sources that you intend to use in your project. Each listing must include a paraphrased narrative of the actual research study presented in the article and the studies used should represent the most current research related to the topic area.

Your outline and annotated bibliography must adhere to proper APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. You may also find samples of each in the Ashford Writing Center, which is located under Learning Resources in the left-hand navigation panel of your classroom.

Your assignment should be four to six pages as follows:

• • Title Page (one page)
  • Outline (two to three pages)
  • Annotated Bibliography (one to two pages)

Week 5 – Final Project

Final Project

The Final Project should demonstrate an understanding of the reading assignments, class discussions, your own research and the application of new knowledge.  It should utilize previous skills developed in foundational health care courses and apply them within the context and viewpoint of  a health care administrator and their role in managing health and human services.

For the Final Project, select one of the following topics and conduct scholarly and professional research while integrating the course’s learning outcomes to aIDress a selected topic:

• Research specific leadership and management traits and theories necessary for managing a multidisciplinary and multicultural health care organization to promote organizational effectiveness.
• Present how strategic planning, performance improvement, and information systems are interrelated and fundamental to the delivery of quality health care.
• Examine the financial characteristics of health care delivery along with managing costs, revenues, and human resources.
• Analyze ethical and legal concepts, including specific federal regulations, required of health care organizations to ensure the delivery of high quality health care that protects patient safety.

Research Requirements

Academic research and papers must meet certain standards of quality that are recognized by the academic community.  What constitutes quality academic research?

• The use of primary (original), credible sources written by experts in the field of study.
• Ensuring secondary sources are supported by research in primary sources.
• Making sure all research is relevant and that material used is pertinent to the area of study.
• In graduate work, the use of peer-reviewed journal articles (journal articles reviewed by recognized experts in the relevant field of study) is required.
• Keep in mind that educational websites may be appropriate, in some cases, but should be evaluated carefully.

The Ashford University Library offers many excellent databases and other resources to assist you in conducting scholarly research.

What sources are not acceptable for academic research and referencing?

• Encyclopedias
• Dictionaries
• Wikipedia, other wikis, or blogs
• Websites and other sources that do not provide quality researched materials (e.g., they do not use credible sources to support the information in the document).

All research must reflect professional academic protocol and must be documented according to APA standards as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

Creating the Final Project

You may choose to present your research is the form of an eight- to ten-page research paper (excluding title and reference pages) or a comprehensive 10- to 15-slide PowerPoint presentation (excluding title and reference slides) with detailed speaker notes.  In either case, the content of the assignment must include each of the elements listed below:

1. Introduction

   Describe the issue.  Include why it was selected, the perspective of your approach to the issue, and the scope of the paper or presentation.  In essence, describe in this area what is being covered.  Be specific and to the point.  This is an important part of the project as it engages the reader and sets the scope of the research.

2. Statement of the Issue to be Investigated

   Describe why the topic is a relevant problem or issue.  It is important to provide literature sources in support of the importance of the need/issue/topic.  For example, if you are interested in researching the issue of nutrition in early childhood brain development among American children – cite literature identifying the scope of the problem (for example:  the number of malnourished children, the implications of malnourishment on learning and brain development; and long term implications).  Overall, this section should detail what makes this topic or issue so important that you are spending time and energy researching it.  What is the impact of the problem if nothing is done to correct the situation?

3. Research Sources

   This section documents the relevant research reflecting the topic of the Final Project.  In this section, paraphrased narratives of the actual research studies are reported and should represent the current research related to the topic area.  In general, your research should:

   1. Identify your chosen topic and what has happened in the specific research of the topic (describe the study, sample, findings, important points from the discussion in the research article, and any variables that may influence the findings of the research).
   2. Discuss any key elements of the topic that may be instructional, legal, ethical, social, etc. (what is projected if nothing is done? what has been tried?).  Support this section with relevant resource citations.
   3. Provide an analysis of the research articles used, including: explaining what was done in the study, what the target population was, information about who did the research (the author), what was found with the study, and any implications of the findings to your topic or issue.
4. Conclusion

   In this section, provide a general, but thorough summary reviewing:  why the topic was selected; the problem or issue briefly stated; the approach that was used; findings; and solutions.  In this section, the reader or audience should have a good idea of what the researcher did and what was found.

5. References

   The references should be listed on a new page or slide and must be formatted according to APA requirements as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.  You must use a minimum of six to eight scholarly sources.